The present invention relates to workstations useful in coating instant photographic prints.
The existing method of coating instant photographic prints is to simply lay the print on a tabletop and coat it with a chemical applicator. To dry the coating, the print is laid face up on any available surface and allowed to dry in ambient air. This method suffers from several disadvantages. For example, coating chemicals will often spill over from the coating onto the tabletop leaving a sticky mess. In addition, prints tend to curl when drying, thereby leaving a curled print which is difficult to work with. Further, in typical applications, the instant photographic prints are produced in rapid succession and thus it is common to see prints lying all over the room in order to dry them. This makes it difficult to locate previously-taken photographs and also to keep them organized. Finally, drying in ambient air is often time consuming and may require the photographer to leave his prints overnight.
There are no other known devices presently on the market designed specifically to dry the surface coating on instant photographic prints. Equipment listed as "photographic print dryers" are designed to dry standard photo print papers after being washed in a water bath. They are large and heavy, typically 4 to 6 cubic feet and weighing 40 pounds. These devices employ heater elements in excess of 1,000 watts of power and exhaust significant quantities of heat into the surrounding area. It has never been claimed or demonstrated by the manufacturers of these devices that they could perform the drying of coatings on instant photographic prints.
Photographic equipment listed as "photo film dryers" can be divided into three categories; cabinet size, wall-mounted and desk top cabinet. The desk-top cabinet film dryer is basically a heat or hot-air dryer which is similar to a small oven and has a small low-velocity fan therein to circulate warm air within the cabinet. These dryers are generally for the purpose of drying film fresh out of the development process.
Another known device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,132,013, issued on Jan. 2, 1979. This patent discloses an apparatus for drying individual sheets of film. The apparatus employs low heat while drying the film to prevent damage to the film. The device is small in size and mechanically simple, although it is primarily designed for use in graphic arts in which relatively large sheets of film must be processed and dried.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,856,555, issued on Dec. 24, 1974, discloses a method for drying an electrophotographic support element containing on its front surface a latent electrostatic image which has been developed in a liquid medium. This apparatus is primarily designed for drying photographic prints of unusually large size and weight, such as lithographic masters or offset printing plates. The device employs cool air for drying and includes a support element including means to circulate cool air over both the front and back surfaces of the support element which is held in an inclined position in the drying chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,151,657 discloses a film dryer which is representative of typical film-drying units. The dryer includes a drying chamber wherein photographic film is dried by non-turbulent, recirculating conditioned air passing therethrough while the print film is suspended from a conveyor system. Foreign material is prevented from entering the dryer by an air curtain.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 3,701,201, issued on Oct. 31, 1972, discloses a microscope slide dryer which includes a substantially rectangular housing open at its front and rear wall and provided with one or more openings for the ingress of air. The front end is adapted to receive and hold the microscope slide tray. An electric fan is mounted in the rear portion of the housing and an electric lightbulb or other suitable heat source is mounted in the upper portion of the housing. A transverse heat and air baffle shield is mounted intermediate the bulb and top of the housing to improve drying.
In summary, none of the foregoing devices provides both a work area for applying a coating to instant photographic prints and a dryer unit for drying the instant photographic prints. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a portable work station for coating and drying instant photographic prints which eliminates the messy spills and long-drying times generally associated therewith. Further, there is a need for a drying device which minimizes curling and other damage to the instant prints during drying.